Our Front Porch Revealed

       You might remember that our front porch looked like this when we first moved in. It didn't reflect our style, and was a bit on the blah side. Not wanting to spend much money on this space, and eager to get out my electric sander, I thought I'd see what I could do with what I had.

I purchased these Adirondack chairs when I was a single gal and first moved to Tahoe,

about six years ago.

As luck would have it, I met Jon pretty soon after I bought these,

and like a knight in shining armor, he came over to my teeny-tiny cabin 

and put them together for me.

Six seasons later and they were showing a little wear and tear.

  Well, farewell worn and tired Adirondacks, and hello front porch face lift. 

                       

Here's our new view from our front door.

                           

       After a good sanding, I sprayed on two coats of white outdoor spray paint, and then I added the rug and pillows, which I nabbed up from overstock.com (hello 20% off with free shipping!). Initially I had been planning on making my own tree stump side table, but when our friends chainsaw went kaput, I didn't have a method for getting said tree stump. I had been eyeing this stool, part of the new Threshold by Target collection, and when I saw it last week with a red clearance sticker on it, I figured it should be mine. I already had the Ikea planters on hand, and added a little gold metallic spray paint to jazz up the grey one (I'm pretty tempted to spray paint everything gold now). Oh, and the little wooden birdie. That resided in our previous rental, and we brought it with us as a reminder of our former life. 

       I decided to go with a neutral outdoor rug, making it easy to change up the look by adding in different pillows or even a different color chair. The blue and white striped pillow spoke to my nautical loving self, and because I never tire of the nautical look, I know I won't be outgrowing them anytime soon. Succulents have long had a place in my heart, and because they're hardy, even I should be able to keep them alive until the snow arrives.

       Was this the most pressing space to tackle? Absolutely not. But because this was a quickie of a project and totaled only about $150.00 buckaroos to get it done (including all of my spray paint supplies), it was a nice project to jump on in with. Because its our only completed outdoor space, we like to sit out here in the afternoons while the kids nap. 

                    Our front porch gives is a nice little view of our side yard (hey Blue!)

 And just because I'm a bit smitten,

here are a couple more images.

       So what's next? I'm in the midst of a closet organization project for Quincy, because her room was just not working for me. Meanwhile, I'm also trying to piece together a few things for our master bedroom. Jon has been holed away making nice progress on the workshop and garage, but things are admittedly slow going in all areas. Ummmm, did I mention working on a house is kind of challenging when you're raising up babies? Yeah, and the fact that Summer weather has arrived to Tahoe and it is glorious. We're out camping at the lake right now with a bunch of friends so I'll be back with some photos of our camping adventure!